The #1 Sign You are a Mother of Several Very Young Children

Okay, maybe it’s not the #1 sign, but it’s up there.  If you’ve ever experienced this, you know what I mean:

You feel slight anxiety pulling into the parking lot of your grocery store/Target/Walmart, etc.  You drive around stalking for just the right parking spot, hoping and praying that you can find it.  You start to sweat a bit when you think you might not see it.  You’re trying to plan what in the world you will do if you don’t…  And then – Hallelujah!  You see it, and feels a little bit like a miracle.

The double cart.  In a cart corral.  With a parking space nearby.  I always get antsy as soon as I see it.  Hurry into my parking space and run for the cart before some other mom can snatch it from me.  I love the double cart.  With it, shopping nirvana is possible.  I can go into the store with an infant in an Ergo and my two “big” girls in the car cart, and all is right with the world.

P.S. Another sign that you are this mother is when you, who are normally so calm and certainly nonviolent by nature, feel a slight urge to throttle the sweet little grandma who is pushing her one grandchild in a car cart.  And he’s 12.

 

 

A Birthday Preview

Somebody turns two on Friday.

We had a little birthday party for her with my husband’s family while visiting with them this past weekend.  She was so excited, walking around all day leading up to the party telling everyone, “It my buh-day pahdy!”

She wasn’t quite sure what to make of it when everyone sang “Happy Birthday” to her, and she was a little hesitant at first about blowing out her candle.  But once she figured out what she was supposed to do she got it done and looked very proud of herself.

She had been waiting all day for this…

Miss got a big laugh out of the chocolate on her face.

I was a little nervous about how Miss would do in the face of seeing her sister get all kinds of cool presents when she wasn’t getting any for herself.  She’s in a “scream first, think later” phase right now, so I thought she might totally melt down.  Happily, she did not.  She did have a few moments of jumping around with “Ooh, I want that, I want that, can I have one of those?” but listened well when I explained things to her and didn’t scream or otherwise throw a fit.

I think she really was excited for her sister, and Lass shared her new loot quite nicely.  Sisters rock.

Even with all the gifts, this thing was the big hit of the evening.

Lass’s actual birthday is on Friday.  We will do lots of fun stuff and have a small party just with our family in the evening.  Instead of cake they’ll get to make their own ice cream sundaes.  I’m so excited.  I love when my girls have birthdays.  I love to see their excitement and joy.  Of course I also get all nostalgic and marvel at how big they’re getting and how all of their baby days seem to have flown by.  And I say it, every time, “I can’t believe she’s __!”  I can’t believe she’s almost two.

Twilight

I love the time right between day and night.  When the sun begins to sink and the heat of the summer day fades enough that cozy jackets are warranted.  When the littlest is in bed and the two big girls are excited because they know they’re up past their bedtimes for a special treat, playing with cousins, sitting around a campfire, toasting marshmallows and eating s’mores.

Miss is protesting the roasting of her marshmallow.

She prefers to eat the s’mores components separately and without the marshmallow being cooked and gooey.

And then there’s Lass…

I think this is like a little piece of heaven.  Special time with my husband and two older girls, a toasty fire as the twilight gives way to a cool night, and chocolate.  Yep.  Heaven.

The Iowa State Fair

Someone once wrote a book titled something like “1000 Things to do Before You Die.”  I don’t know who wrote it or what 999 of the things in the book are or whether I’ve done any of those things, but I do know that one of the things this person noted was the Iowa State Fair.  A must do before one dies.  Check.  Yesterday we rocked the fair and it was good.

My husband grew up going to the Iowa State Fair and loves it.  I first went when Miss was about six months old.  It was fun then.  There was lots of cool stuff to do and look at.  It was easy with just one immobile and good-tempered baby.  This time, though it was a little bit more tricky, and at times trying, it was so much more fun.  I loved, I mean loved, watching my girls do the fair.  There were so many fun experiences for them.  They got to see piglets being born.  They watched a lamb chasing and dancing around its mother to grab on to her and nurse.  They saw chicks hatching, and all sorts of other baby animals.  They got to play with butterflies.

Miss was so proud of herself for learning to catch the butterflies all by herself.  Lass had a heavier hand and needed some help to keep from clubbing them, but she eventually got it too.

A little later, Miss was very eager to ride the Big Yellow Slide.  We happened to eat lunch right near it, and she couldn’t even eat she was so anxious to get on that slide.  She was mad that she couldn’t go down by herself.  She went down with her daddy.  And she hated it.  It totally freaked her out.  Lass on the other hand loved it.  She went twice and wanted to keep going.

So true to their personalities.

Of course a day at the fair is not complete without trying various “fair foods.”  The girls have a book in which the characters go to a fair and eat cotton candy, so they were eager to try it.  Cotton candy is not one of my favorite things and I would not normally waste $4 on it, but I was excited to see what they thought of it.  Naturally Lass jumped right in and ate it up.

And Miss was not so sure.  She said, “Why is it dry?”  She didn’t love it so much.

I tried my first fried Snickers bar.  It was tasty, but I think I’d rather just have the Snickers.  Surprisingly, not everything in life is made more delicious by deep fat frying it.

We made up for the disappointing cotton candy with red velvet funnel cake.  Funnel cake is not really my thing (my belief about dessert is that, with very few exceptions, it’s generally not worth the calories if it isn’t chocolate) but the girls enjoyed it.  Again, Lass dug in with vigor.

We spent a lot of time looking at the animals.  They were the big hit of the day, from all the baby animals to the “Big Boar.”  His name was Reggie and he was over 1500 lbs, I think!  Though his size was impressive, the girls actually seemed to prefer the smaller animals, because poor enormous Reggie didn’t do anything but lay in the dirt.  The girls were really intrigued by other animals like bunnies, chickens, ponies, llamas, sheep, horses, normal-sized pigs, and an elk.  Miss’s favorite were the bunnies.

Lass’s favorite were the cows.  She asked to pet a new mama cow who was in the birthing barn with her calf, but there was a staff member posted near her specifically to make sure no one got too close.  That mama cow was very protective.  Gotta respect that.

We had so much fun looking at and talking about all the animals.  It was an amazing learning experience.  We talked about everything we saw, from how the baby chicks peck their way out of the eggs to why a sheep pooped in his water dish.  They’re still talking about that one.

A surprising favorite was the tractors.  My husband loves to look at them, but I wasn’t expecting my girls to get into them as much as they did.  They wanted to climb into every one and Miss got upset when we needed to move on to other things.

We saw as much of the Fair as we could in one too-short morning.  We got back to the Farm after a long drive and one of the first things Miss asked to do was to look at her Papa’s tractors!  She takes after her Daddy I guess.

We’re at the Farm this week, recharging and savoring the last of summer.  The Iowa State Fair was a wonderful addition.


Stay-At Home-Mom – What Do I Do All Day Anyway?

Originally posted 4/12
If you aren’t or have never been a stay-at-home mom (or dad), you might wonder what someone does who stays home with her kids all day.  I know I did before becoming a full-time mom myself.  I didn’t wonder about this in a malicious way.  Not like in a “what the H-E-double-hockey-sticks-does-she-do-all-day?” kind of way.  I just wondered.
Well.  Now I know.  So, what do I do all day?  Here’s an idea:
I create mountains with couch cushions.  I encourage.  I insist “you can do it.”  I cheer for accomplishments.  I help when necessary.
I do laundry.
Lass was having a really hard time climbing over this cushion and was getting frustrated watching her sister go up and down with ease.
I encouraged her to keep trying.
Here she’s saying “I did it!”  I love that moment.

I have tea parties.  I color.  I read aloud.  I ask, “What color is this?”  “What does (fill in this blank with some animal) say?” “What sound does (fill in this blank with some letter) make?” “What do you think about that?”  All. day. long.  I sing songs.  I sound out words.  I count everything out loud.  I answer “Why?”  and “Why?” and “Why?

I watch.  I praise.  I watch again.  And again.  And again.  I teach.  I spot.

Miss is really into working on headstands and handstands and showing off various other skills she is learning at gymnastics.  This reminds me of when my mom helped me learn how to do a cartwheel.  I wonder how many hours we spent working on them in our living room.  I want to do the same for my girls.

I kiss boo boos.  I teach manners.  And responsibility.  And problem solving.  And everything.

I discourage whining.  I try to reinforce more effective ways of communicating.  I try to teach my girls to be strong and direct.

I do laundry.

I referee fights over who gets to wear which headband.  Over who gets the little Cinderella doll (or “Wedda” as Lass calls her).  Over who gets to hold Baby Sis first.

I change diapers.  I wash diapers.  I fold diapers.

I nurse a newborn. I take forever to get out of the house.

I cook.  I clean up.  I cook.  I clean up.

I wipe mouths and noses and counters and hands and tables and rear ends.

I give baths.  I comb hair that is like silk.  I fix pony tails.  I say “You’re beautiful.”  “You’re smart.” “You’re strong.”  “You’re funny.”

I do laundry.

Baby Sis right after a bath

I help to outfit Super Heros.

Daddy helps them to fly.

Sometimes they crash.

I do more laundry.

I give lots of hugs.  And kisses.  I snuggle.  I tickle.

Sometimes I just sit.  And watch.  And I’m thankful that I am fortunate enough to be able to do all of these things and so much more.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Here I Am

Here’s the new site.  I don’t like the style of it at all, and I’m still trying to figure out how to create a post so that it doesn’t take 20 minutes to add three photos and then be told that the upload limit has been reached.  WordPress and I are going to have issues if I can’t upload more than three photos per post!!  Anyway, I’m working on getting everything the way I want it to be.  I had a real post planned for tonight, but it’s not happening the way I had hoped it would.  Thanks for being patient with this process.  Hopefully I’ll be back to doing real posts very soon.

Change is Coming

I have finally decided to take the big step.

Motherhood and Miscellany is moving.  I am working on getting my own domain and switching to WordPress.  I’ve been debating this for a while, and am finally going to do it.

She calls these her “Gobbles” 

What does all of that mean exactly?  Well, not much really.  The blog will still have the same name, but the URL will no longer include “blogspot” because I won’t be using Blogger anymore.  I will still have Motherhood and Miscellany’s Facebook page, where you can follow and get post updates.  I will have a somewhat different, but similar, design for the blog, and hopefully it will be more user friendly.  I should have it set up so that if you come to this site by accident, you’ll automatically get routed to the new page.  I’m transferring all my content.  So, that’s about it.  I think it will be good.

I’m not exactly sure when I will start posting on the new site, but I’ll let you know.

Change is good.

54 Photos (And Happy 4th!)

I don’t have many good photos of all three of my girls together yet.  Today I really wanted to get a photo of the three of them in their little 4th of July outfits.  I took 54 photos trying to get a decent one.

Like on Sunday, Lass was being a photo monkey.  At least this time she was a happy and non-screaming monkey.

Well, not screaming in anger anyway…

She totally checked out for a little while, so I got a few photos of Miss holding Sis.

But eventually Lass got back into it.  Sort of.

I finally did get a few good photos.  Happy 4th!

Like It’s 1999

Yes, we do love to party around here.  The girls have been really rocking the dress up and dancing lately.

So today, we got dressed up (even Daddy!) and had our special New Year’s Eve party.

The girls got a few minutes to practice with our noise makers.

Then we did our countdown, yelled “Happy New Year!!” and went to town with the noise makers.

Who cares that it was only 7 pm?

They sure didn’t.

We even finished off the party having a “toast” with our special “party drink” in fancy glasses.

The drink was sparkling cranberry juice.  The girls weren’t really sure if they liked it.  Miss kept taking little sips and smiling, but then saying, “It’s too spicy!”  I think they mostly liked the fancy glasses and having something different.

They thought it was all a pretty big deal.  Happy New Year!  I’m looking forward to all that 2012 has in store for us.

Daddy Plays With Dolls

Have I mentioned how awesome my husband is?  I love watching him play with our girls.

He is good at playing baby dolls.

He’s better at it than I am. He gets into character, Big Baby, Little Baby, Ariel, or whichever baby or babies he is “assigned,” and gets Miss laughing like crazy.

One of the first things she says to him when he gets home from work is, “Daddy, do you want one of my baby dolls?”  To which he always replies, “Sure!”

They play and play.  Funny little baby doll games that only the two of them “get.”

What an amazing Daddy.